Once I Was Real
by caitewarren
Summary: "Your mother's name is Ariel and she's the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon". The tragic tale of Prince Eric, Ariel and their son Killian. Ariel is fated to turn back into a mermaid, her memory whipped clean of Eric and their son. Eric is sentenced to a life on the Dead Sea reaping souls and Killian is left alone to fend for himself in this world.


Toes were the most peculiar things Ariel had ever seen. She'd spent hours studying her own, touching them, making them curl up underneath her feet, observing which ones had to curl when the others did and flexing them. Eric was bemused by her fascination and it irked her, he'd been born with toes and feet surely the effect was lost on him.

The baby's toes if possible were even more peculiar and so much tinnier. The skin around them was wrinkled as if there was too much skin present. They wriggled and flexed just as she did with her own.

"Mama loves you," Ariel murmured softly cradling the baby closer to her breasts adjusting the silk blanket to see his tiny feet, "and I will always be watching over you."

Her body had become riddled with terrible sharp shooting pains as scaly membranes broke through the porcelain skin. She'd lost the ability to walk a few moments ago forcing her to take shelter underneath the docks just before the land met the sea. Her lower lip was bleeding from the times she bit it trying to hold back any screams for fear of any of the sailors stumbling across her in this state.

"Your Papa has got a sailor's mouth and a temper to match," she cooed softly, "but you most be patient and understanding, he doesn't mean it. It's just the way he deals with most things, getting angry. The world hasn't always been just to him and I fear it's not going to be just to you," the infant's eyes fluttered open and fixated upon her as if he truly understood what she was saying. Already he appeared to favor his Papa, a tuff of jet black hair rested upon his head and his eyes were the same bright cerulean color that Eric possessed. He would be a handsome man and there was nothing more her body ached for then to get to see him grow up, to mold him into the man he'd become, "he has so much love in his being and I have been so blessed to be loved by him,you're going to be a great asset to your Papa, Killian. You've got the sea in your blood,"

"Ariel?! Ariel?" Eric's voice called out as his feet pounded on the dock above them, bits and pieces of sand sprinkling onto them. He walked as though he were a three hundred pound uncivilized man rather than a slender prince. Ariel raised the baby's head and placed a lingering kiss to his forehead.

"Goodbye Killian," and the tears began to freely dribble down her cheeks, "my little prince."

"Ariel?!" Eric called once more.

Attempting her very best to keep her voice steady and even she called back, "we're down here!"

The scene that befalls Eric made his heart pound heavily in his chest. Ariel reverting back to her mermaid self had been something eating at the back of his mind for the last five years. Always his first thought when he woke in the morning and the last when he was trying to sleep, he couldn't picture a life away from her. Her spirit of adventure, her singing, her fascination with toes, her beauty and her kindness, she became his whole world.

"You need to take him," Ariel said firmly her emerald eyes fixating upon him, "take him to the ship, get as far away from here as you can, from me, from your parents, from this place."

"I can't."

"You have to," Ariel insisted raising the squirming bundle of blankets to him, "for me. For him."

"I can't raise him by myself. He needs his mother," Eric averted his eyes and softly vulnerably whispered, "I need his mother."

Ariel's lower lip quivered and the tears she'd managed to stop momentarily began to flow once again. Seeing her cry made his stomach twist painfully and instantly he regretted playing the mother card.

"His father will have to be enough," Ariel answered, "tell him about me, cherish him, love him, he'll always have a piece of me in him."

Eric stumbled towards them dragging his feet along the sand and kneeling beside them. The baby was thrust towards his chest and his arms felt numb as he cradled the infant glancing between the child and his mother.

"I love you," Ariel said softly.

"I love you too," Eric muttered placing a kiss to her head, her cheek and than a long kiss upon her lips. The familiar taste of salt made him deepen the kiss until she broke it off.

"Go now." She ordered.

**Once Upon A Time**

"A mermaid?" Killian asked in disbelief. One of his skinny eyebrows arched up as he looked at his Papa.

It was the arching of an eyebrow expression that reminded Eric most of Ariel. Despite his son being his spiting image he'd still managed to inherit some of Ariel's quirky expressions and mannerisms.

"Aye, lad," Eric said softly gripping tightly onto the steering wheel of the Jolly Roger trying to force down the bitterness and the burning sensation that came along with any mention or thought of her, "her name is Ariel and she was the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes upon."

Eric watched as his son thought through it. His expression grew from curious to concern in a matter of moments. His eyes growing wide and a small barely audible gasp escaped his lips, "am I a mermaid too?"

"No laddie. You're a human. Your ma was human when she was pregnant with you," he said reassuringly patting the boy's scrawny skin and bones back, flinching slightly. His son was a prince of two kingdoms, one of land, of the five pedal flower and one of sea, of the trident, and yet he starved, was uneducated in scholarly ways and formal training, of swordsmen ship, of horseback riding, of every privilege that was grudgingly offered to the "spare" as King Matos and Queen Seraphina called Eric.

The only reason Eric was ever conceived was because his elder brother Egan had perished at the hands of a dragon, leaving the kingdom without their beloved heir. Matos and Seraphina were much older and had long ago grown out of love, he was conceived for a political reason alone, to keep the kingdom in their family. Love to a royal was irrelevant. As was his engagement to Calypso, the sea witch who'd plucked him from the sea when Eric was barely a toddler, and in exchange for being saved he was to marry her when he came of age.

His view of love changed when meeting Ariel. Love became everything.

"Where is she now? Ariel, my mother," there was ever a slight hesitation when he said her name as if testing it out. She'd never truly been discussed before, an unspoken agreement amongst the crew was to never mention her, but Killian had stumbled across a few of her belongings, namely a fork, her hair brush that still had a few strains of red hair entangled in it and her engagement ring.

"In the sea," Eric answered solemnly, "she only had five years to live upon land before she had to return to her home," He ruffled his son's hair, "she loved you more than anything, more than me, more than her legs or her toes."

The crew had been acting off all morning. They were a rowdy motley assembled group of widowers, criminals and soldiers who almost always had something to hoot and holler about, but today they were eerily silent going about their tasks.

"Why don't you go below deck and get our swords?" Eric suggested to his son who hurriedly scampered away, "put your mother's belongings back!"

Raffie was shuffling towards him looking petrified and if Raffie was scared that meant something. He'd once been on the front lines between the trolls and humans only to be sent home because of his advanced age.

"She's found us, Calypso, I mean," Raffie stammered out refusing to meet the Captain's eyes, "and she's demanded you by midnight or else your son will pay the price."

**A/N: This has been in my head for months. **


End file.
